English as a Medium of Instruction in Tunisian Public Higher Education Institutions: Exploring Attitudes, Challenges and Classroom Practices

To keep pace with globalization, many universities worldwide have begun teaching academic subjects in English. However, Tunisia has received almost no doctoral-level attention to EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction). This is a significant omission: as a context in which English displaces not a first language but French—itself a colonial imposition—Tunisia presents a triangulated linguistic ecology that standard EMI frameworks, built around a simpler English-versus-local-language axis, are ill-equipped to address. Framed within linguistic capital theory (Bourdieu, 1986) and linguistic imperialism (Phillipson, 1992), this thesis explores and interprets attitudes, challenges, and practices in Tunisian higher education, where English vies with French as a medium of instruction. It adopts a pragmatic, mixed-methods approach, drawing on questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations to explore students' (N = 315) and lecturers' (N = 14) attitudes and practices in two EMI institutions in Tunisia. Findings indicate markedly positive attitudes toward English, with students associating English with professional and educational opportunities, and French with a colonial past. However, students report challenges, notably the transition from French-medium schooling to English-medium higher education. Like students, lecturers view English as offering opportunities but report interaction challenges and being unsupported in this transition. Classroom observations indicate that lecturers' engagement in learner-centredness depends partly on the class's tasks and purpose; generally, classes observed are not learner-centred. Although most lecturers engage in code-switching, often to facilitate learning, attitudes to it among students and lecturers are variable, with some viewing it as a strategy that enhances learning and others equating it with a lack of seriousness and opposing its use. This thesis contributes to knowledge by showing how attitudes and practices in EMI are shaped by the historical linguistic ecology—here, the transition from one colonial language (French) to another (English). Hence, it argues that research must consider EMI within its historical linguistic ecology.